Sedona’s Big-Budget Reality: A Town of 9,700 With a $110 Million Budget

Opinion | Investigative

When you picture a small town of fewer than 10,000 residents, you might expect a lean, efficient budget, something proportionate to its size. Not in Sedona. Our city’s budget for Fiscal Year 2026 clocks in at $110.2 million, a figure that rivals or exceeds the budgets of many cities several times our population.

For context: Sedona’s Housing Fund Reserve, the pot set aside to address our long-running affordable housing crisis, sits at just $15.5 million. That’s the same crisis where local workers, from teachers to service staff, are priced out of rentals, forced to commute long distances, or sleep in their cars.

Meanwhile, personnel costs, salaries, benefits, and retirement contributions, balloon to $22.9 million. Layer on another $18.5 million in non-personnel operating costs and you’re at $41.33 million for ongoing operations alone. Our city is spending nearly half of Sedona’s entire annual budget on staff and operations. $26 million more than our entire housing fund is worth.

Sedona In Motion:The city’s “master plan” to finally fix traffic issues fails to address the glaring truth. The underlying traffic mess in Sedona isn’t going to be solved by throwing tens of millions at roads, when the real issue is overcapacity of visitors for our tiny infrastructure. The “Sedona in Motion” program almost feels like it’s designed to manage the strain so the city can keep the tourism cash spigot wide open, instead of taking the politically harder route of limiting or reshaping visitor volume.

Where the Money Flows: The budget reveals staggering allocations. Capital Reserves: $25.3 million, far surpassing housing reserves. Equipment Replacement Reserves: $7.5 million.Transit System Reserve: $5.3 million.Contingencies: $3.5 million, which spiked 266% from the prior year.

And then there’s capital projects, $49.1 million worth, much of it going into land purchases, and other “investments” that, while possibly important, don’t immediately address the urgent human needs facing Sedona’s workforce.

The Housing Paradox: Here’s the contradiction no one at City Hall seems willing to explain. The City appropriated $19.3 million for affordable housing initiatives years ago. Today, after land returns and program adjustments, $15.5 million remains, and it’s just sitting there. The City admits there’s no target for the fund balance and no clear timetable for deployment.

In a market where construction costs rise by the month and land is only getting scarcer, sitting on $15 million while claiming housing is a “priority” is more than poor planning, it’s negligence.

The Big Picture:When your per-capita budget breaks down to over $11,000 per resident, you don’t get to hide behind excuses about “limited resources.” Sedona’s problem isn’t a lack of money, it’s a lack of political will to put that money where it’s needed most.

The city leadership owes residents more than PR spin. They owe answers, and more importantly, they owe action.

Until then, the message is clear: in Sedona, the cash flows freely… just not to the people who need it most.

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